Taemin shuffled towards the kitchen half asleep and only drawn by the sound of voices. “Who wants to bring him to Henry?”

“Who’s going to Henry?” The second he entered the room and asked, the four went silent. Three pairs of eyes flittered to Jonghyun, so the maknae followed. “Hyung?”

“Henry is going to be watching you today while we are doing our schedules. This way you aren’t being dragged along with us to just sit in a dressing room for hours.” Jonghyun wasn’t looking at Taemin—the first sign he was lying. “Okay?”

“He’s going to teach me violin, isn’t he?” He sounded hopeful as he looked to the others. All of them eventually nodded and Taemin gave a smile to them all. “Then thank you for asking him to. You didn’t have to, but I’m glad you did.” After grabbing a bottle of strawberry milk, Taemin sat down next to Jonghyun and looked at all of them. “I’m starting today?”

“Hold it like this, Taemin.” Henry kept his voice gentle as he shifted the smaller boy’s hold on the old practice violin. “And remember how I showed you to hold the bow?” Taemin didn’t nod, only gave his answer by holding it as he had to. “Great! Just get used to playing while holding it like that, it doesn’t matter how it sounds, okay?”

As he grabbed a sip of water from a bottle resting on the piano, his phone buzzed in his pocket and Henry pulled it out, answering without even looking at the caller.”Hello?”

“He isn’t a problem, right hyung?” Jonghyun’s voice was the first one he heard, but from the ones that chipped in after, Henry knew he was on speaker with all of the others as well.

“Problem?” He gave a laugh at that. “I wish he was. When I taught the hyungs, they never picked it up this fast.” Both he and Taemin winced as a note was hit that wasn’t pretty, but the younger still continued playing when Henry nodded for him to, slowly becoming accustomed to the position. “At this rate, he’s going to be as good as me by the end of the year.”

“Not possible!” Taemin’s weak yell was heard even on the other end of the line and they all smiled at it, but Key was barely holding back tears. If he is here at the end of the year.

The phone switched to speaker on his end as well. “Come here Taemin. I’ll let you talk while I get some lunch for us.”

He barely made it out of the room before a familiar native-English speaker was in front of him. “Who you teaching violin to now? Another trainee? Don’t make them quit again.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” Henry playfully glared at Amber before shaking his head. “And if he quits now, it would cause a huge scandal. It’s Taemin.”

“Woah. They are actually letting you teach him?” She nudged the elder to show she was joking before turning serious. “He was studying English a lot the day I had to watch him so I asked Kibum if they wanted me to help him. He said I shouldn’t, since they wouldn’t be able to handle it if he spent his last months working on something he wouldn’t be able to use. It’s like they are expecting him to die.”

“Amber…” Henry grabbed her shoulder to stop their walking and made her face him. “I know you believe he’s going to be able to get through this and as much as I want to as well, have you seen how sick he is?"

“Yes.” She shook the hand off, glaring at the older boy. “I have. And I know he can get better. He’s strong enough to.”

“But if everyone keeps telling him that and he doesn’t… It’s just going to be harder on everyone.” He was left talking to no one as Amber turned away from him. “Amber! Wait!”

“No. If you’re just going to be like everyone else and just treat him with pity because you think he’s going to die, I’m not going to speak to you! Get some sense and maybe I will.”

After showing the boy how to do it the lesson before, Henry let Taemin pack up the violin as he did the same with his own. When the boy handed him the case back, Henry made sure it was correct before looking back at him. “Good luck with your chemo tomorrow Taemin. Stay healthy, okay?” Henry gave the younger boy a smile as he started to leave carrying the two cases.

But Taemin stopped him quickly by just speaking. “Hyung? Can I ask you something?”

The honorific caught him off-guard, but Henry still nodded and turned to Taemin again. “Anything and I’ll try to answer.”

“How is it that you have so much time to spend teaching me? Don’t you have schedules as well?” For the second time in seconds, Henry was caught surprised. His smile faltered only slightly before picking it back up, but Taemin noticed. “You don’t have to…”

“No, it’s okay.” He placed one of the cases down to have a free hand. “You know the whole controversy with me and Zhou Mi in Super Junior, right?” Taemin gave a small nod, knowing where it was going already. “We don’t get to do many schedules since SM is afraid of angering the fans of the others. Both of us have a lot of free time.”

“So is sunbae just sitting alone in the dorm now then?”

The innocent question had Henry giving a little smile as he nodded. “Not necessarily completely alone, since there are others there every now and then between schedules, but yes. He’s there a lot.”

“Why don’t you do something with him instead of teaching me instead?” This question stumped Henry. I can’t just say I’m doing it from pity…

“Because Zhou Mi is a sunbae that likes to be alone. Henry is a hyung that likes to use what he knows to help people.” Never had either of them expected Amber to answer, but she was standing in the doorway, smirking at the eldest. “I was sent to get you for dance practice. I’m apparently a lowly messenger to your members.” She gave Taemin a smile before turning back to Henry. “You might want to get down there. I’ll drive him back to the dorms.”

The violinist nodded, giving a final smile to Taemin before rushing out of the room, carting the two instruments with him. “Come on Taemin-ah. And if you want, we can get lunch on the way.”

“Noona?” Taemin gained Amber’s full attention in seconds. “Thank you for taking such good care of me. We haven’t talked much before, but now you’re suddenly one of the only people the hyungs let me hang out with.”

“Maybe because they know I won’t break you.” It was joking as she turned off the car, getting out as Taemin did the same. “Is anyone in your apartment?”

He was thinking as they started up, but finally shook his head. “I don’t think so. Everyone had schedules all day. Why?”

“Do you want me to stay with you? I don’t have any schedules…”

“It’s okay noona. I’m fine.” They stopped outside of the apartment and Taemin fished through his pockets for keys, eventually finding them and grabbing the one to let him in. “Thank you for the ride.”

“Not a problem Taemin-ah.” She waited until he was inside and the door locked before walking away. By the time Amber reached the end of the hall, her phone was out and in her hand. “Oppa? I dropped Taemin off at your apartment. Is there anything I should be getting for you guys?”

“Just make sure he doesn’t need anything. We’re almost done at our schedule and we’ll be back.” There was some noise on the other end and Key yelled something, covering the phone with his hand. “You don’t need to watch him; we won’t be long. And thank you for taking care of him—I’ll make sure to come up with some way to pay you back for it.”

“Just believe in him and that’s enough for me. Good bye oppa.” She hung up without waiting for a reply and looked around the stairwell to make sure no one as there before crouching down to sit on one of the steps. “It’s like he was given a death sentence…”

‘Believe in him’? Key shook his head to try and clear Amber’s request and focus on the shooting, but it just kept coming back. By the time he managed to get in the van with the others, it was the only thing on his mind. “Earth to Key. Are you okay?”

It wasn’t until Jinki’s hand actually landed on his shoulder that he jumped and realized everyone was looking at him. “Huh? Oh… I’m fine.”

“What were you thinking about?” Worry-filled puppy eyes met his own. “Is it something to do with Taemin?”

“Kind of…” He looked at the window of the car as they started moving. “Amber drove him back to the apartment after his lesson and called me to ask if we needed anything there. But when I said I’d make it up to her for all that she’s done…” There was a pause that left all of them wondering what could have been so bad to make him like that. “She said she just wanted us to believe in him.”

“Aren’t we though? We’ve been supporting him and everything.” As Minho spoke, none of them noticed Jin’s grip on the wheel tightening.

But before the manager could say anything, Jonghyun cut in again. “You guys actually think the way you act is believing in him?” He locked eyes with all of them. “I’m not going to say I’m perfect at it and act like I don’t have times doubting if what I am doing is right or not, but I believe Taemin is the type of person to get through everything and anything. Jinki-hyung, you believe that half the time, but the rest… You act like he is definitely going to die. Like there is nothing to do so just give up on it and let him enjoy the rest of his days without worry. That’s not how you should be as the eldest.” He waited for the leader to say something back, but he only nodded and looked at his hands, agreeing. “And Key… You believed in him at the start. You tried to think he would be able to get through and acted like nothing was going to stop him. But once you heard from me what he was going through, you changed. I wanted you to understand things—not change how you acted. I might not have seemed like I believed in him then, but I thought he could make it through. I was just telling the truth that we never know if and when something is going to happen…”

“You had talked like you didn’t think he was going to be okay. You told me all the pain he goes through…” Key trailed off, not even sure where he was going with the accusation.

“For you to know both sides. Not for you to give up on him.” Jonghyun patted the diva’s knee before turning him attention to the youngest with them. “And Minho… you act like none of this is happening. Have you even had a real conversation with Taemin, just the two of you, since he got sick?”

The silence alone was enough of an answer, but Minho slowly shook his head. “I… I’m afraid for him. If I faced him to talk, I don’t think I’d be able to stand it.”

“Well get used to it.” The tone was harsher than necessary, but it drove the point in. “Taemin isn’t going anywhere and he needs someone close to him to be able to talk to now. That used to always be you, so why is it anything different now?”